Quanhe Yang, Ph.D., of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to examine the association between added sugar intake and CVD mortality in adults.

The researchers found that the majority of adults (71 percent) consumed 10 percent or more of calories from added sugar. For 2005 to 2010, about 10 percent of adults consumed 25 percent or more of calories from added sugar. After multivariable adjustment, adjusted hazard ratios for CVD mortality, compared with participants who consumed less than 10.0 percent of calories from added sugar, were 1.30 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.09 to 1.55) for those who consumed 10.0 to 24.9 percent of calories from added sugar and 2.75 (95 percent CI, 1.40 to 5.42; P = 0.004) for those who consumed 25.0 percent or more of calories from added sugar.

"[The study] underscores the likelihood that, at levels of consumption common among Americans, added sugar is a significant risk factor for CVD mortality above and beyond its role as empty calories leading to weight gain and obesity," writes the author of an accompanying editorial.